Dubai: Tariff For Large-scale PV Hits New Low At $0.024/kWh

The Dubai Water and Electricity Authority (DEWA) has announced it will expand Phase IV of the 5 GW Mohammed bin Rashid Maktoum Solar Park by another 250 MW. The power utility has also revealed that the PPA with the project developer, local energy giant ACWA Power has been amended, and that the new PV portion of Phase IV, which originally included only a 700 MW CSP power plant planned to sell power at $0.073/kWh, will sell power at a tariff of $0.024/kWh. This price equals that of a 1.17 GW solar project currently under construction in Abu Dhabi.

The Dubai Water and Electricity Authority (DEWA) has announced that Phase IV of its 5 GW Mohammed bin Rashid Maktoum Solar Park, originally planned to deploy 700 MW of CSP capacity, will now also include a PV section of 250 MW.

As for the 700 MW CSP section of Phase IV, ACWA and DEWA had agreed a price of $0.073/kWh. It will consist of a 600 MW parabolic basin complex and a 100 MW solar tower. “The project will have the world’s tallest solar tower at 260 metres, and the largest thermal energy storage capacity in the world of 15 hours, which allows for energy generation round the clock,” DEWA stressed in its statement.

Construction on the 800 MW Phase III of the project, based exclusively on the PV technology, started in January 2017. The first 200 MW section of Phase III came online in May and at the time, French project developer EDF said the following two 300 MW units would be commissioned in 2019 and 2020

“The solar park is one of the most important projects supporting the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 with a total capacity of 5,000 MW by 2030 and investments worth AED 50 billion,” DEWA stressed in Saturday’s statement.